Cup a welcome distraction

4 December 2013

mkdons.com

MK Dons captain Dean Lewington says this weekend’s The FA Cup with Budweiser clash with Dover Athletic will be a welcome distraction from the League.

Karl Robinson’s side have lost their last three games in Sky Bet League 1 and currently sit 12th in the table. Their most recent defeat, a 3-1 loss at home to Coventry City on Saturday, saw the side fall nine points adrift of the play-of places.

However, with the country’s most prestigious cup competition returning to stadiummk this Saturday, the Dons have a chance to take their mind off their current League form and focus solely on progressing through to the Third Round of The FA Cup – something Lewington relishes.

Speaking to the media, the 29-year-old said: “(Saturday) will be a very welcome distraction. It’ll obviously be a difficult game but we’re looking forward to it. We want to progress because a place in the third round is too big of an opportunity to miss.

“My brother is in non-League so I’ve got an idea of what Dover are like because he’s played against them before. I know they’ve done well, the last three or four years and they’ve done brilliantly to get to the Second Round. You can’t take a team who has got this far lightly and so we’ll prepare as we would for any game and we’ll give them the respect they deserve.”

A win on Saturday will not only put the Dons’ name in the hat for the Third Round draw for the second season in a row but it will also boost the side’s confidence heading into a difficult festive period and Lewington, who has played every minute of every game since the start of September, believes that’s just what the team needs to regain their form.

He added: “The confidence is a little bit low and we’ve been trying our best to work on things and I think you can see we’re very fragile at the moment.

The morale, though, is still, surprisingly, okay because we still don’t seem to be getting cut open, we’re just conceding wonder goals and mistakes. Although it’s frustrating, we’re not going out and getting thrashed; we’re playing well it’s just certain things are just not happening.

“There are still a lot of positives to work on. We know this is not good enough but there are still some things that are good enough that give us hope that we can turn this around.

“We’re not looking over our shoulders at the moment, we’re still looking forward. We’ve seen what sides like Bournemouth - who went on a great run and got into the promotion places – did last year and even Yeovil to some extent.

“We’re fully focused on looking up the table and getting those points to get back into the mix.”